


Condemned to be Free

by Nikkee_Crypt



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Gen, Nineties, Stand Alone, mixed format
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 08:12:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18279275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikkee_Crypt/pseuds/Nikkee_Crypt
Summary: A demon known as THE CONDEMNER plans on eliminating the children of Sunnydale, in revenge for the town's past wrongs. This is a self-contained story set in the nineties.





	Condemned to be Free

**Author's Note:**

> This story is inspired by the Classic Buffy of yester-year, hence the nineties setting. I’ve taken the odd liberty with the Buffy-verse canon. The story mixes the style of PROSE FICTION with the style of SCRIPTWRITING of various sorts. I hope you’ll find it to be a fun read.

** BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, in ‘Condemned to Be Free’.  **

** A fan-fiction by  ** ** Nikkee ** ** Crypt **

Based on characters created by Joss Whedon  


 

SUNNYDALE, CALIFORNIA. NIGHT

It’s 1997. Obviously. The Slayer - the one known as Buffy Summers - strolls through her town’s cemetery as the midnight hour approaches. With an early start tomorrow in Mrs. Nelson’s English class, Buffy knows she won’t be rested enough to engage in any forced discussions. But this is the life that somebody somewhere signed Buffy up for...

She feels her neck tickle and knows there’s a sudden and subtle breeze. Since she knows Sunnydale, she knows this is supernatural. She turns and instinctively knows which fresh grave is about to be spoiled from the inside. Before she can make out the name on the stone, a hand shoots out from beneath the dirt. Buffy is quick – her trusty stake is in-hand and ready to be forcefully inserted into this bumpy-faced vamp’s heart. The hand from the grave grabs dirt and another hand does the same. The undead, unholy thing pulls itself up and out of the grave, revealing a tall, young woman in a blood-red evening dress. She was beautiful in life, Buffy guessed, but her new membership into the demon club gave her sharp fangs and a jawline structured elegantly enough for the purpose of eating people.

The two young women are now face-to-face in a dark cemetery, when the undead girl – in her demonic, deep voice – says: “Prepare to meet your maker, Bitch.”

Buffy cocks her head in recognition of her opponent. “Tina?”

Dead Tina narrows her eyes to better see, but she fails to recognise Buffy Summers.

** BUFFY ** : “It’s Buffy Summers. Oh my god, Tina Roberts as an actual demon. Of course.”

Tina begins her attack with a punch to Buffy’s face, but Buffy is quick to block Tina’s follow-up blows. The two high-schoolers – one living and one undead – fight and pant and “OOF!” Suddenly, they pause, standing off once again.

** BUFFY ** : “Buffy? In second grade, you drew all over the wall with crayons and blamed me?”

Round two as punches are thrown and Slayer and vamp battle in the misty graveyard. Dead Tina needs blood to begin her eternity of life in the shadows. Summers, on the other hand, just wants Dead Tina to remember her. 

FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, PAUSE! Buffy has a small cut on her face.

** BUFFY ** : “And in sixth-grade swimming you held my head underwater for so long, I thought I was going to die.”

** TINA ** : (cocky smile) “And after all that... How does it feel knowing that  _ this  _ is how it ends?”

The combat sparks to life once more, but it very quickly ends with Buffy’s stake comfortably positioned in Tina’s heart. Tina looks shocked.

** BUFFY ** : “Feels pretty good.”

Buffy pulls her weapon out of Tina and Tina POPS, FIZZES and dissolves into dust, her fate in hell now sealed.

Feeling accomplished, The Slayer begins her late-night walk back to her suburban home, as she delivers a final put-down to the recently re-deceased Tina. “’Prepare to meet your maker’? Wow.”

END OF TEASER.

_ Throughout history, one single fighter has been powerful enough to fight the world’s vampires, demons, and all things darkly supernatural. When she dies, another is called. She is The Slayer. In the late-twentieth-century, she is Buffy Summers. High-schooler. Shoe-shopper. Ass-kicker. _

** BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER in ‘Condemned to Be Free’ **

PART ONE

LUNCH TIME AT SUNNYDALE HIGH. THE LIBRARY.

Librarian Rupert Giles – who was born fifty – studies an old, dusty book on occult history. Buffy’s description of an unusual purple mist last night, has her watcher troubled.

Buffy’s two best friends, Willow and Xander, eat a messy lunch beside The Slayer as all three use the large wooden table to not study.

** WILLOW ** (always mousey but enthusiastic): “You have to tell us, Buffy. Was Tina all rusty and dusty and – and looking like a corpse?”

** BUFFY ** : “No more than usual.”

** XANDER ** : “Oh, how I wish I could have seen it.”

** BUFFY ** : “Xander, you’ve been in love with Tina for-like-ever, you know you have.”

** XANDER ** : “Hey! She let me borrow her sharpener one time. I thought she liked me.”

** WILLOW ** : “Hey, are you guys going to Jim Lawrence’s party tonight? I hear there’s gonna be snacks. And no vampires. I know it’ll be slower than our usual pace, but... I like snacks.” 

** GILES ** (head still buried in book): “Oh dear god.”

** WILLOW ** : “What is it, Giles?”

** GILES ** (briefly looks at them, then back at the text): “I’m not entirely certain just yet, but... Tonight is prophesized to have an event. (looks closer at the text with narrowed eyes) Either some kind of festival. Or- ”

** BUFFY ** : “- don’t say apocalypse.”

Giles clearly has more to say but thinks better of it since The Slayer  _ correctly _ anticipated his next word.

** XANDER ** : “Great. Apocalypses are our thing, right? Buffy slays, Willow does some kind of magic spell, I – in respect for the whole female empowerment thing – do very little but throw the occasional punch.”

** GILES ** : “I wish it were that simple. It seems the mist Buffy witnessed last night, is a sign.”

The three friends get up and gather around Giles and the book.

** BUFFY ** : “Okay Giles, Cliff-note me.” 

** GILES ** (gliding over the page with his index finger): “Well. A hundred years ago a demon known as The Condemner was sent to hell by a group of townspeople.”

** BUFFY ** : “The Condemner?”

** GILES ** : “Yes. He used to be a man. Wrongly found guilty of murdering his own daughter and then hanged. It seems a demonic force heard his pain and gifted him with enormous power. A power he uses to spread great suffering.”

** BUFFY ** : “Let me guess: only once every hundred years.”

** GILES ** : “Correct. The Condemner rises from hell every hundred years to... Well, to kill children.”

** WILLOW ** : “Oh no! Why the children?”

** GILES ** : “For revenge, I imagine. He wants the living survivors to grieve and suffer as much as he did.”

Buffy, in thought, slowly paces away from the group.

** XANDER ** : “So it’s one guy?”

** GILES ** : “Not quite.”

** XANDER ** (drops his head in disappointment with himself): “I had to ask(!)”

** GILES ** : “He has minions. Probably three dozen or so. They’re connected to him, spiritually speaking. The Condemner crawls into action, in a sort of-”

** ALL THREE TEENS ** : “Crawls?!”

** GILES ** : “Yes.”

Giles finds a page in the crusty old book and turns it to show the other three. He points to a pencilled illustration of what looks like a warped caterpillar that took too many demon steroids. And it looks angry.

** GILES ** : “Its standing height is 300 feet. That's a tad smaller than Big Ben’s Clock Tower.”

** BUFFY ** : “Good. Now how do I kill this thing and send it back to hell?”

** GILES ** : “I’m afraid he can’t be killed, Buffy.”

PART TWO

A GRASSY HILL NEAR THE HELLMOUTH. ALMOST SUNDOWN

The Slayer is ready to fight. Always ready. But Buffy Summers is not only a slayer; she’s a person, a friend, a girl who crushes majorly on celebrities she’ll never meet. Over recent months she has produced a mental image of a SHELF; an imaginary shelf that nobody else can see. Almost like a book shelf but without books. At moments like this – teeth gritted and ready for combat – she mentally places the teenaged Buffy Summers on this imaginary shelf. She promises that when the fight is over she’ll come and collect this version of herself. She always makes this promise...

In place of her stake, Buffy holds a slim sword. And the sword is about to get gooey. 

The Slayer stands with her knees bent and her feet planted firmly in the ground. The sun is setting now.

** BUFFY ** : Giles!

Giles is sat cross-legged, many metres away. He and Willow and Xander make up a spaced triangle on the grass, ready to do an energy-based spell.

** GILES ** : What is it?

** BUFFY ** : Don’t screw this up!

** GILES ** : (quietly, to the others) I haven’t ruled it out.

The town of Sunnydale – unaware of a supernatural threat – sits calmly behind its four defenders.

SUNDOWN arrives with the distant HOWL of nocturnal animals. Of course, we know: those howls are not by animals. They are The Condemner’s minions and as they make an appearance, Buffy thinks they look like large rats.

** BUFFY ** : “The trailers are over. Main event time.” 

She springs forward and starts to fight the first three minions. They go down easy.

** WILLOW ** : “By commandment of Mosyra, and the servants of the realm.... (Latin) Dolores inferni circumdederunt!”

The circle’s centre lights up.

The Slayer does her thing – heads are KICKED, hearts are PIERCED, minions SHRIEK as they fall down dead. But one or two minions have gotten past Buffy and are headed for the town and its children.

** WILLOW ** : “Et hic est virtus. Nunc.”

Willow’s eyes become larger and darker. A fine glow FIZZES around the three spell-making friends.

** WILLOW ** : “Xander, go! Help Buffy.”

** XANDER ** : “You need me here!”

** WILLOW ** : “Go!”

Xander sees Buffy struggle; she’s out-numbered. He jumps to his feet in order to aid his friend, leaving the spell weaker without his energy. Giles and Willow must now work extra hard to keep the magic flowing.

Buffy SWINGS and SLICES with relish. She hops onto one minion’s head and dives straight into a crowd of its accomplices. As they circle her and attack, she swings and kicks and DUSTS with the gusto of a woman who feels right at home.

Not long, though, before she’s hit and starts to struggle again. The roar of Xander’s car distracts these demon freaks. They spot the speeding vehicle and they know it means trouble. But these walking “bowling pins” are out of time as the “bowling ball” that is the speeding car knocks them down. The driver – Xander Harris – whoops with delight.

Buffy rises, bruised, and looks at Xander and the dishevelled car.

** BUFFY ** : “Your mom’s gonna kill you.”

The minions’ numbers are smaller now.

As Harris reverses the car and prepares for the next strike, Buffy hears a SCREECH. The large, slimy demon that Giles talked about makes its appearance. It is THE CONDEMNER. It looks as nasty as it does dangerous. As it rises to its full height...

** BUFFY ** : “Giles you weren’t kidding.”

Meanwhile, Willow seems stable but she’s also juiced up on magic. Giles cannot take the force of the magic connection; he is PUSHED onto his back by forces unknown.

** GILES ** : “Oh god. Willow. (he tries to rise but is defeated by his current weakness) I’m so sorry.”

Willow recites more Latin and mere metres away a spiral of energy breaks open the ground. What a shame that the spiral pulls down and destroys a children’s playground. This is it – Willow almost has the temporary portal to hell active and ready...

** GILES ** : (very quietly and with tremendous effort) “Willow, don’t. It’s too powerful for one person.”

** WILLOW ** (now goddess-like): “I got this, Giles.”

** GILES ** : “It’ll kill you!”

** WILLOW ** : “I’m stronger than you think.”

MORE LATIN as lighting strikes, thunder ROARS, and the power of a god flows through seventeen-year-old Willow. So much power her hair begins to turn grey. Giles – his face illuminated by the supernatural firework display – watches on in helpless desperation.

THE CONDEMNER – tall and angry – breaks trees as he slides along faster than The Slayer had anticipated. When his tail-end fatally wipes away some of his own minions, Buffy knows that this meanie means business.

THE CONDEMNER approaches Buffy, hissing “SSSLAYERRR”.

** BUFFY ** (in combat position): “I'm ending this right now.”

Buffy, slayer of the vampires, kicks into full attack mode, anticipating and dodging The Condemner’s tail before getting a cut in. The cut is on his shoulder, however, and ineffective. Repositioned to attack again, Buffy pauses. She is witnessing The Condemner’s bulges GROW and PULSATE until they become CLAWED LIMBS. Two, then four...

** BUFFY ** : “Giles, this thing is growing arms!” - SMACK! She’s hit. She goes down. But the fight has barely started.

Dodging The Condemner’s follow-up swings, Buffy manages to grab hold of one of its limbs and off she flies, fast, holding onto the limb as best she can. As the limb pauses and The Condemner regathers, Buffy plants her weapon into the limb. Okay now The Condemner is angry. She dodges one swing but is SLAPPED back by the next, hitting a tree.

The Condemner has little time for Buffy now and barely pauses when she comes to face him again. Sword in hand, she leaps toward The Condemner and bounces off his mid-body. With this spring action she lunges onto the giant slug’s right side and pinballs her way up its body with the grace of a seasoned cat on the hunt. The Slayer moves fast; The Condemner is still gearing up to terminate this pest, when the sword enters his heart.

The Slayer lands on her feet, and watches her work pay off while The Condemner... well... The Condemner laughs.

Buffy watches in disbelief as Super Slug spells it out: “Your attempt to slow me down is pedestrian at best, Slayer.”

XANDER steps out of the vehicle and he and Giles watch in horror.  Buffy’s dropped jaw and wide eyes give away her disbelief and fear, as The Condemner hurries now to Sunnydale’s homes to execute the young...

PART THREE

** BUFFY ** : “Hey, Slug Head!”

The Slayer resorts to manipulation of the verbal sort – it's not new, but it’s necessary. The Condemner, however, is not so easy to stop.

Okay, plan B. Or C, or whatever. Buffy runs towards The Condemner, her heart weighted with the knowledge that she must do something unforgivable. Or more accurately, say something unforgivable.

** BUFFY ** : “Wasn’t satisfied with your own daughter, huh? You want more children?”

The Condemner pauses and Xander’s jaw drops as he says, “Uh-oh.”

Willow’s spell has caused her to levitate as she houses the most powerful magic she’s ever felt. Giles spots a spiral of smoke in the ground as the ground widens to form the temporary portal to hell. The unseen place beneath the ground seems to breath smoke and it trumpets the pain of souls. Giles makes a mental note to never end up down there.

** BUFFY ** : “That’s right, I know all about your crime.  Little Jessica? (Buffy almost sheds a tear. She hates herself for saying this) Murdered by the one person in the world who should have been looking out for her!”

** R-W-A-A-A-R-R-R-R!!! ** The Condemner’s roar comes as he spins to face The Slayer. Before she can process the grotesque sight of the inside of The Condemner’s mouth – with those tall, attentive teeth and walls that resemble a black, slimy cave – Buffy is already inside him. Her head-first lunge into The Condemner’s wide-open mouth is fast and ninja-like. She holds her breath as The Condemner realizes what’s happened and starts to choke. So begins The Slayer’s journey through a slimy pipe-hole with just a belly full of limited oxygen and a sword. Target destination: the heart. Always the heart.

** WILLOW ** : “Pantentibus!”

The teen proto-witch's final commandment allows the throat of hell to meet California’s night air, and not for the last time. For a few moments, as the portal to hell lies hungry, the night appears to look like day. A warped, twisted kind of day.

Willow spells out her commandment as -

Buffy – immersed in an ocean of slime – has found her destination and positions her weapon on the large central organ. Her fast, FORKING movement is so profound that she almost follows the sword into The Condemner’s heart. The BURST and SPRAY of black liquid from the newly-punctured hole is her signal: get the hell out, or you’ll be going to hell.

The Condemner’s tremendous SCREAM tells all who hear it that this demon was once a man. And before he was a man, he was a little boy.

** WILLOW ** : “Quod praecipio tibi!”

As The Condemner breaths its last breath in great pain – wriggling violently on suburban soil – Xander worries that his friend Buffy is trapped inside the giant slug in a one-way journey to the underworld.

The blade that comes through the demon’s lower body is fast and glides smoothly. Xander delights at the sight of the sword. The Slayer makes her exit through her newly-made, Buffy-sized doorway as The Condemner sighs with anger and resentment, and crash-lands.

Covered in demon blood and bits of entrails, Buffy leaps from the bumpy, unstable floor that is The Condemner’s pulsing exterior as -

** WILLOW ** : “...back to hell!”

Buffy lands and rolls away from The Condemner and towards Xander as a blinding light seems to pull The Condemner through the portal.

Willow struggles but stays on task as everybody else – barely able to see from the fiery display – watches the defeated demon disappear into that unholy place below -

Just in time.

As Willow lowers her guard, the portal closes more smoothly than it opened. The supernatural light-show around them dissolves into night-time darkness once again. Willow is grounded and sighs relief.

The Condemner’s minions FIZZ and fall. They dissolve into dust before hitting the ground.

Xander and Buffy stare at the spot the portal occupied three seconds ago, the spot now a barely distinguishable aura of smoke and sparkles.

The world around them looks and sounds normal again.

The Scoobies all knew; they did it. 

** XANDER ** : “Willow!”

He rushes to aid his friend as Rupert Giles gathers himself to slowly approach the rest of the group.

** XANDER ** : (holding Willow) “Oh my god. That was awesome! (sees Willow’s now-slightly-grey hair) And you went for the Rogue/X-Men look.”

Buffy can barely walk. She’s dripping and almost unrecognizable under all the demon goo. She stops and eyes Willow. Dearest Willow.

** BUFFY ** : “Are you okay, Will?”

The Slayer’s three companions look her up and down. Buffy hasn’t registered the reality of her own appearance yet.

** WILLOW ** : “Buffy. You’re covered in snot. (they giggle) I need to sit down.”

After some recharging, the group is slowly walking away from the bloody display and towards the car. Home-ward? Perhaps. But “home” has been a mysterious word to Buffy Summers since she was called to slay demons.

As they stroll, huddled together, looking exceptionally dishevelled:

** BUFFY ** : “So - Jim’s party. Who wants in?”

** GILES ** : “You  _ are _ joking, Buffy.”

** XANDER ** : “I’m with the slayer on this one, G-Man. When you slay hard you play hard.”

** WILLOW ** : “Hey, is anyone else concerned about the fact that The Condemner didn’t actually die?”

** BUFFY ** (ignores her friend in favour of party talk): “I wonder if the cocktail sausages will be gone already.”

** XANDER ** : “Ooo, do you think our host will have party bags?”

** WILLOW ** : “I mean, The Condemner will be back. Kinda feels like we just passed the buck onto a future generation.”

** BUFFY ** : “If we hurry, we might make ‘spin the bottle’.”

Our heroine is Buffy Summers, a teenaged girl. And tonight – after she cleans up the monster blood - she intends to act like it. The Slayer deep down wonders if this double life is sustainable in the long-term. Buffy Summers, however, mentally shelves The Slayer for the rest of this warm Sunnydale night.

THE END   


 

Buffy Summers will return.   



End file.
